New Andy Crouch Piece
Want to “impact” your campus/city/world for Christ?
Better read Andy Crouch’s On the Journey to Greatness first!
Bible Trivia Corner: Who was the most “successful” Old Testament prophet? Which one was the biggest “failure”? Which of those two had the biggest “impact” from the picture of history? And why is knowing all that crucial to whatever future ministry you might be involved in?
Read Crouch to find the surprising and startling answers!
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October 29th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
Dang! That was an excellent article! Who is Andy Crouch, anyway, Mark? I feel like I should know this person (or at least who he is), but I’m afraid I’m drawing a blank. That was a great message though…
October 29th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Andy is a former InterVarsity director at Harvard who now is the editor in chief of re:generation quarterly. He also writes regularly for Christianity Today.
October 31st, 2005 at 10:07 am
Mark,
Thanks so much for this link - I loved reading this. I actually read it out loud just for the pleasure of the way the words sounded and since it was originally an oral address. I think its particularly meaningful to me because we did just up and move ourselves away from home, family, familiarity … in search of greatness/success/impact eventually by way of a stop at Westminster, knowing that soon we will be on our way to a PhD program for Mike. I find myself reassuring people all the time that we will be here “at least two years, possibly three.” Yesterday we met with the pastor at the church we will be joining to ask how we might be involved, and the question of how long we could stay came immediately to the forefront, because — it’s true, to have any lasting “impact,” one does need to stay, to dwell, to be in one place with the same people for a long time. I am missing my friends and family for that reason and looking forward to a day when we will be settled and can “dwell” for a good long time. In the meantime, I suppose there are spiritual lessons to be learned from being a pilgrim, too, no?
October 31st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
Very good article. Thanks for the link, Mark. I need to be shown this, especially now as I’m still young and have a zeal to go out and make an “impact” on the world. I’ve said it before, but may be yet to fully realize that the biggest impact I can have will be on my closest friends, my family, and any who are with me for an extended leg of this journey. People are the priority; this must by why Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is “love.”
October 31st, 2005 at 8:42 pm
Rachel…we’re sure glad that you’re stranded on our little island for a while!
Keith…wise words my friend. Take it from one who has too often taken those closest for granted, Dorothy was right; there’s no place like home.
October 31st, 2005 at 8:47 pm
Mark, this article was such an encouragement to me. How often my heart needs this paradigm shift…I am so thankful that my value comes from Christ and not the “impact” which could be evident to the human eye. The more Christ refines me into His Bride, the less important I seem in this world…It is truly is a going down to be raised up. Thank you for drawing my attention to this article.
October 31st, 2005 at 8:50 pm
Glad you’re all enjoying some Andy. In the short time I’ve known of his writing he’s had a profound impact on me.
I discovered the writing of Crouch and the music of Sufjan Stevens about the same time…it’s almost too much beauty to bear!
November 1st, 2005 at 1:56 am
I’m just happy that you’re on the Sufjan bandwagon, Mark. Saving you a seat was getting hard!
November 1st, 2005 at 7:01 am
Man, somebocy just needed to tell me!
November 1st, 2005 at 1:54 pm
About Sufjan Stevens: is there a discussion thread about him anywhere? I have his wonderful albums on Michigan and Illinois, bought the only way I get new music these days: trade credit from selling back theological books I bought for class but deemed useless. Don’t you hate it when you buy a bunch of books ahead of time, only to find out that your professor changed his mind in the time between they submitted their lists with the bookstore and the first day of class? Anyway, I helped the WTS bookstore, Mark — and in trading those books in for trade credit at Rainbow Books and Music in Newark, I now have Sufjan Stevens.
My three-year-old daughter and I love to dance to what she calls the “bouncy song”: “The Man of Metropolis Steals our Hearts.” We love it! And the song after it — am I right to understand that his friend gets stung by wasps and DIES? Anyway, such beautiful songs.
Since this is the Andy Crouch thread, I think the magazine that he edited, re:generation Quarterly, has ceased publication. In the same way, the journal where I first found out about Sufjan Stevens, the Mars Hill Review (vol. 25–our library has it), is also no more. Is the demise of these publications because there’s too many blogs out there, and/or no time (or money) to afford or produce quality printed matter?
November 1st, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Stephen: You’d find discussion of Sufjan’s work on the forum where Mark and I first became friends.
November 1st, 2005 at 5:57 pm
I see I’m going to have to write a post about Sufjan….it’ll have to wait for the weekend though.
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:48 am
Stephen:
WNYC’s Spinning On Air has an archived two-hour interview with Sufjan entirely about the album Illinois. All the insider info on the songs you could hope for!
To spoil part of the interview, and answer your question about “The Predatory Wasp”…I don’t think there’s any intention of anyone dying in that song. Sufjan says that it is based on memories of summer camp from his childhood in Michigan, here transplanted to Illinois. He said that he and his friends at camp invented in their imaginations this monster creature that was part wasp/part bird. They came to blame everything mysterious or bad that happened at camp on this “predatory wasp.” The song is really just about the innocence of childhood friendships, where the simplest things are turned by imagination into great drama.
November 3rd, 2005 at 9:55 pm
that was a great article! thanks for posting that mark